Saturday January 10, 2009 Tom Pruce

Theme: None

Total block: 30

Total words: 68

I just noticed this morning that all of the Tom Pruce puzzles we've solved are themeless. Have never seen his name in other newspapers before. I sure hope he starts to look for other venues. What a mess with Tribune!

Mr. Williams, if you are reading this blog, please talk to your constructors, pay what you owe them for God's sake. You are losing the loyalty and trust of those capable puzzle makers by continuously keeping silent.

Not a hammer, but definitely a gavel for me today. Lots of troubles with lower right corner. Most of the time I find down clues to be easier than the across ones, but today is an exception. Can you still clue ITO (3D) as "OJ's judge" after his recent trial? How would you clue Judge Jackie Glass then?

Forgot to show you this huge Crossword Building earlier this week. It looks like an empty grid in the day time, but all the words become visible when the light is on in the evening. Tell me how different it is from our puzzle pattern other than that it has an additional gray shade.

Across:

1A: Armed robbery: STICKUP

8A: Spanish port: ALMERIA. Arabic for "The Mirror". Unknown to me. See here. It's a seaport in south Spain on the Mediterranean Sea.

17A: Astronomer of Alexandria: PTOLEMY. I surprised the hell out of me by getting his name with only letters PT_ _ _ _ Y filled in.

18A: Huge statues: COLOSSI. I only knew the adjective colossal. Can you give me an example of a COLOSSUS?

24A: Physics Nobel laureate Isidor: RABI. Googled his name. Nobel winner 1944.

26A: Of Rome's predecessors: ETRUSCAN. I simply forgot this word. Saw the clue before. Wikipedia says ETRUSCAN civilization extended between 1200 BC to 100 BC.

34A: Member of a Catholic order: PAULIST. It's "a member of the Roman Catholic Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostle, founded in New York in 1858." Another unknown to me.

40A: British weapon: BREN. See this picture. I only knew STEN.

41A: Bootleg liquor: HOOCH. Have never heard of this word before. Does not sound like a liquor name to me.

45A: Tolkien creature: HOBBIT

46A: Anglo-Saxon tax: GELD. Nailed it this time. But does "Neuter" sound like an offensive clue? "Anglo-Saxon tax" strikes me as very obscure.

48A: Garment with a tight waistband: BLOUSON. Like this? I only know blouse.

53A: Rod shaped bacteria: BACILLI. See this picture. Why some of them have black dots on? It's another new word to me. Dictionary says BACILLUS is rooted in Latin "baculum" meaning rod/walking stick.

59A: Serengeti hunter: LIONESS. I don't get this clue. LIONESS is being hunted, how can it be "hunter"?

Down:

4D: Very pale green: CELADON. Hmm, "Very pale green" indeed. Good to learn this word.

7D: PGA golfer Stewart: PAYNE. Gimme to me. He died in a plane crash in 1999. He won three majors in his life, 2 US Open, 1 PGA Championship.

8D: Discover: ASCERTAIN. New definition to me. Always associate ASCERTAIN with "To make certain".

13D: Singer DeLange: ILSE. Have never heard of this Dutch country singer. She looks very pretty.

23D: Elvis Costello hit: ALISON. I got it from the across fills. Not a familar song to me. Could not find a YouTube clip either.

26D: Moray catcher: EELER. Sniggler is "Moray catcher" too.

27D: Mediterranean evergreens: CAROBS. Oh, good to know. CAROB is always powder to me. Are those ripe pods edible also?

28D: R & B singer Keys: ALICIA. Here is her "Fallin'"again. "... Lovin' you darlin'..."

31D: Ghastly quality: LURIDNESS. I wanted pallidness, but it did not fit.

35D: Mother-of-pearl sources: ABALONES. NACRE is often clued as "Mother-of-pearl".

36D: Of the chest: THORACIC. Oh well, I guess I don't know my own chest.

39D: Roger of Byrds: McGUINN. Another google. I've never heard of "The Byrds" either. What songs are they famous for?

42D: Pointed monolith: OBELISK. Why is it also called "Cleopatra's Needle"?

45D: 1962 John Wayne movie: HATARI. New movie to me. Wikipedia says the title means "danger" in Swahili.

48D: __ out (eject): BAIL. Is this another Janus phrase? I thought BAIL out means rescue, like the current bailout package.

49D: Currency of Georgia: LARI. No idea. See this picture.

55D: Letters before the World Series: LCS (League Championship Series). I think ALCS or NLCS is a more popular term than LCS itself.

56D: Addams Family relative: ITT. The cousin. Everything I know, I learned from doing Xword.

C.C.

Friday January 9, 2009 Barry Silk

Theme: RIGHT FIELD (54A: Baseball position... or this puzzle's theme)

17A: Oscar winner in 37D: SALLY FIELD

22A: Second shortest serving U.S. president: JAMES A. GARFIELD

35A: "Catcher in the Rye" character: HOLDEN CAULFIELD

45A: "The Wayward Bus" co-star: JAYNE MANSFIELD

David Copperfield is another RIGHT FIELDer. But his name has 16 letters. Won't fit in this 15*15 grid.

I did not know that JAMES A. GARFIELD is the "Second shortest serving U.S. president" (199 days). Brian Williams of "NBC Nightly News" is working on a book about the assassination of GARFIELD I think.

Knew JAYNE MANSFIELD, but I had never heard of "The Wayward Bus". I was so proud that I got HOLDEN CAULFIELD. I remember his name not from "Catcher in the Rye" (too many curses in the book), but from Jennifer Aniston's "The Good Girl". Her love interest in the movie named himself Holden Worther because he thinks his life mirrors that of HOLDEN CAULFIELD.

Luckily 17A, 37D and 38D are not difficult to obtain today, cross-referencing clues can be frustrating sometimes.

Why is A-ROD (28A) clued as "2005 baseball MVP"? Something special about his 2005 season? He was the MVP in 2003 and 2007 too. I can never understand why Seattle Mariners did not try hard enough to keep players like A-ROD, Ken Griffey Jr, Randy Johnson, etc.

Across:

1A: Scale with no sharps or flats: C MAJOR. Is it really a key for happy music?

14A: Sumptuous: DELUXE. I always associate "Sumptuous" with a lavish meal.

15A: Fashion designer Kawakubo: REI. No idea. This photo looks very familiar though. Here are some her designs. So edgy.

19A: Norse VIP: ODIN. We got Friday from Frigg, wife of ODIN.

20A: Slip-on slipper: MULE. I wonder why they are called MULE slippers.

27A: Essen article: EIN. And LES (57D: French article)

32A: I. M., the architect: PEI. Someday I am going to visit the JFK Library. PEI was born in Guangzhou, where I lived for five years before moving to the US. I like the clue. It reminds me of the funny name Ima Hogg.

41A: Small silvery swimmer: DACE. New fish to me. Looks like a small carp.

43A: Airline to Madrid: IBERIA. Have never heard of IBERIA Airlines. It's the national airline for Spain. I am more used to "Spain's peninsula" for IBERIA. Nice, fresh clue though.

53A: Pianist Thelonious: MONK. Too obscure an MONK for me. Why would his parent name him Thelonious? Sounds like a Greek mythological figure with 12 heads living in the Hades.

Down:

3D: The works: ALL. Why?

5D: Water part: OXYGEN. H2O.

7D: Shorthand system: GREGG. Is it still in use today?

8D: Macedonian capital of old: PELLA. See this map. New name to me. It's the birthplace of Alexander the Great.

9D: Of stars: SIDEREAL. I was surprised that I had never seen this word before. It's rooted in sidus, Latin for star.

10D: Get a close-up: ZOOM IN

11D: Provide (with): ENDUE. Only know ENDOW.

22D: One of a court dozen: JUROR. "12 Angry Men" is a great movie.

23D: Soap plant: AMOLE. Learned from doing crossword. Don't know why it's called "Soap plant". Can you wash your clothes with AMOLE?

24D: Safety grp.: MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving)

25D: Feudal estate: FIEF

32D: Wisdom unit?: PEARL. Plearls of wisdom.

33D: Heston title role: EL CID. Have you seen the movie? Is it romantic?

37D: Movie starring 17A: NORMA RAE

43D: Should that be the case: IF IT IS

44D: Nigerian Civil War side: BIAFRA. Here is the map. The Civil War in 1967. I know nothing about it.

45D: Economy-size: JUMBO. I often confuse JUMBO with jumble.

47D: "Fiddler on the Roof" role: YENTE. I just learned this morning that YENTA is a back-formation of YENTE, which is an alteration of YENTL.

C.C.